Thursday, July 31, 2014

Eric Bainbridge 'Late 90's Constructions' Workplace London

Image: Eric Bainbridge, Untitled, 1997, Melamine faced chipboard, plastic, gloss paint, nails, screws, dental floss, 28 x 26 x 25 cm, 11 1/8 x 10 1/4 x 9 7/8 in (EB0439)



Eric Bainbridge

Late 90's Constructions

 

8th August - 20th September 2014

 

Workplace London

61 Conduit Street

London

W1S 2GB

Friday and Saturday, 10am - 6pm

(and by appointment)

contact: karen@workplacegallery.co.uk

tel: 44 (0)207 434 1985 

 

 

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Eric Bainbridge at Workplace London.

 

'Late 90's Constructions' brings together a body of works made by Bainbridge in 1997 that specifically address the history of Modernism and the traditional material hierarchies of Modernist Sculpture. In these works Bainbridge employs ubiquitous 'low - grade' materials such as melamine faced chipboard and dental floss to reappraise a Formalist vocabulary. That a material can be 'second - hand' and in some way dirtied and devalued by its former use - yet be explored for its aesthetic potential nevertheless, sits at odds with the Modernist ideal of 'truth to materials' and the inevitable distillation of form and material towards a refined 'pure' essence. In contrast to this reductivist impetus Bainbridge emphasises the 'subordinate' conditions of temporal normality, liberating the autonomous Art object via the absurd patina of everyday life.

 

'...the small scale of these sculptures allows for various references - constructivism, architecture, the amateur 'string picture', the still life etc. Although I don't consider them as maquettes, the size of the work enables an active imaginative relationship to the object, i.e. it is easy to fantasize about their potential large scale and environmental potential. I wanted to continue exploring the aesthetic, status, and value of the material by using a language that was recognizably modernist. It seemed important that the works 'belonged' to something historical. I like the idea* that if all things were destroyed and we had to remake the contents of museums without "special" materials maybe we would use melamine and dental floss...'

Eric Bainbridge, 2014

 

Eric Bainbridge was born in Consett, County Durham, UK in 1955. He completed a Masters in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London in 1981. Frequently cited as one of the most influential British artists working in contemporary sculpture Bainbridge has exhibited in important group exhibitions throughout his career such as "Material Culture" at the Hayward Gallery, London, and "British Art of the 80's and 90's" at IMMA in Dublin, he was recently included in "Modern British Sculpture" at the Royal Academy, London. Solo exhibitions include "View Points" The Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, "Eric Bainbridge" at The ICA Boston, "Style, Space, Elegance" at The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and recently 'Forward Thinking' at MIMA, Middlesbrough and 'Steel Sculptures' at Camden Art Centre. Bainbridge's work is in significant international collections including the Stedelijk Collection, Arts Council England Collection and the Tate Collection. Bainbridge lives and works in Sunderland, Hartlepool and London.

 

from 'Mastering The Art of Ventriloquism' an essay by Penelope Curtis in 'Eric Bainbridge: Works 1991 - 1997, Cornerhouse - Delfina' published by Cornerhouse Press, ISBN 0 948797 48 7

 

Forthcoming exhibitions include Eric Bainbridge, Workplace Gateshead, 20th September - 25th October 2014.

Workplace will be presenting a solo booth of Eric Bainbridge at Frieze Art Fair, Regent's Park, London, 15th - 18th October 2014 (Booth H10) http://friezelondon.com

 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Last chance to see: Jo Coupe / Cecilia Stenbom at Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK

 

Jo Coupe The Ashes of other Elements (installation view)

Cecilia Stenbom Everyday Collateral (installation view)

 

Exhibitions close on Saturday 19th July 2014

 

Workplace Gallery

The Old Post Office

19 - 21 West Street

Gateshead

NE8 1AD, UK

 

Workplace Gateshead is open 11am - 5pm Tuesday - Saturday, or by appointment.

 

To view installation images and download a full press release please follow the link below

 

http://www.workplacegallery.co.uk/exhibitions/

 

Kindly supported by:

 

 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Eric Bainbridge: 'MD3 Fragility and Monumentality' Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand






Image: Eric Bainbridge, Untitled, 2014 Steel and fur. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

MD3 Fragility and Monumentality

27 June - 24 August 2014
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok
Main Gallery, 9th Floor
Curated by Andrew Stahl
Supported by British Council

Andrew Stahl/ Atsuko Nakamura/ Be Takerng Pattanopas/ Eric Bainbridge/ Jedsada Tangtrakuwong/ Panya Vijinthanasarn/ Miranda Housden/ Nathaniel Rackowe/ Neil Jeffries/ Nipan Oranniwesna/ Tintin Cooper/ Tuksina Pipitkul

This exhibition Monologue Dialogue 3 continues an important conversation initiated 8 years ago in Thailand supported by the British Council resulting in exhibitions of a group of British and Thai artists in both Bangkok and London. The group of artists participating in this third exhibition has evolved organically to include new artists that are interested in this kind of diverse, international and unpredictable dialogue. The key words here are fragility and monumentality. This show illustrates nothing. It is not an illustration of a theory or concept; it embraces the poetic and uncertainty will sometimes surface. The artists will interact, fabricate, assemble, paint and construct this show - we expect an electric conversation with excitement and perhaps even failure. Failure and nothingness are key words in art and ones that can be embraced resulting in fragility and a vision that is unexpected. Monumentality is about presence, and can be about the awkwardness of being.

Tuksina Pipitkul will surprise us with her large white sculpture, a new version of 'Respond' that holds the space; the complexity of Tintin Cooper's pavilions provide a cross between sports stadiums and modern shrines; Nipan Oranniwesna is planning a new and ambitious installation especially for the exhibition; Neil Jeffries is making a series of small wall relief works situated somewhere between painting and sculpture; Nathaniel Rackowe will make sculptural neon installations with a strong sense of the urban; Miranda Housden will play with the unexpected attempting to suspend a giant chandelier from the ceiling; Panya Vijinthanasarn has made a very large painting touching on chaos and unpredictability, playing with the words nuclear and new clear and an image of the Buddha; Jedsada Tangtrakuwong will create a surprising and monumental site-specific installation integrating (or not) with the architectural structures in the space; Eric Bainbridge will arrive with The Ghost of Jimmy the Nail and will make a sculpture in situ; Be Takerng Pattanopas will install a 20-metre-wide new edition of gas-p which will include sound elements and comprise of two long tapered tunnels, leading to mysterious luminous counter-forms of human figures; Atsuko Nakamura will make a new sculptural installation, scavenging for wood and natural materials such as driftwood, salt, sugar, and water and will make a video; Andrew Stahl will include a large painting, The Death of Trotsky.



Wolfgang Weileder: 'Cone' Dunston Staiths, Gateshead, UK

Wolfgang Weileder

 

CONE

 

4th July - 19th September 2014

Dunston Staiths, Gateshead NE8 2BF

 

OS Grid Reference: NZ2359262666

OS Grid Coordinates: 423592, 56266

Latitude/Longitude: 54.9581, -1.6331

 

CONE is an architectural-scale artwork by Wolfgang Weileder situated on the Dunston Staiths, a landmark Scheduled Monument on the south bank of the River Tyne in Newcastle Gateshead.

 

As a catalyst for debate on the diverse understanding of 'Sustainability', Cone will offer a platform for new insights and discussion, informing disciplines from fine art to urban design, community development, environmental and planning policy. Cone stems from the Jetty Project on Art & Sustainability, and interdisciplinary research project funded by the AHRC and coordinated by Newcastle University and the University of Manchester.

 

www.jetty-project.info

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Wolfgang Weileder: 'TRANSVERSALE' Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany

Wolfgang Weileder

TRANSVERSALE

13 July - 24 August, 2014


Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany
http://kunst-re.de/02khausstellunge.html


Wolfgang Weileder lives in the UK and is Professor of Sculpture at Newcastle University art school.
He is known for his artistic interventions and installations in public spaces.

For Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Weileder presents a massive spatial installation that turns the bunker building as a whole, into a virtual "skew". Presenting the Kunsthalle as a scale model within the gallery, Weileder shifts the spatial relationship of the viewer and viewing space.

In addition to his sculptural work, he also deals extensively with the manipulative possibilities of photography. Weileder presents two large scale photographic series, "Atlas", his large-format photographs of urban spaces around the world made by layering one-pixel horizontal slices taken from thousands of fixed position photographs of towns and cities, and "Seascapes", produced with  one-pixel vertical slices of large format seascapes. A specially produced print has been made for the exhibition showing the old town of Recklinghausen.

 

Each image within both series is made over a number of hours giving the sense of 'time compression'. Weileder sets up a formal yet poetic sense of time and space, allowing for a better understanding of place. Through the perspective of the latest digital technology, urban landscape and natural landscape come together to create a new, unprecedented visual world.